The Scorpion Den
The Scorpion Den is a city in the Kingdom of Sand. On the map of Pyrrhia, it is marked with an image of a scorpion. The den is the home of the Outclaws, an organization of SandWings that runs the city. The Outclaws are the dragons who are responsible for feeding the starving dragonets and maintaining order of the city, as well as distributing water. Queen Thorn was their leader before she left with Sunny to become queen of the SandWings in The Brightest Night. It is a place full of dragon criminals who wish to hide from Burn and her troops. This is also where both Mamba and Parch grew up in their lives. They had both lived in the Scorpion Den for four years, and stayed loyal to Thorn all the time. Parch’s parents are Blister and Hyrax, while Mamba’s was Gazelle and Cactus. Appearance The Scorpion Den is a walled city with winding alleyways and run-down stone buildings. The streets are filled with rickety stalls and tents, most of which sell different types of merchandise, and almost every other stall sells water or Brightsting Cactus, the only known antidote to SandWing venom. The streets are also dusty, crowded and tight, which was discovered by Sunny when she tried walking through them with Six-Claws on her way to Thorn's tent. In the center of the town is an oasis that is guarded by the Outclaws, in which young dragonets are allowed to visit every morning for free meals. It is mainly inhabited by SandWings; however, Sunny saw a pair of SkyWings and an IceWing, whom she notes must have been miserable in the heat. Winter described it as "the opposite of Queen Glacier's castle." Community The residents of the Scorpion Den are mainly SandWings who were trying to avoid the bloodbath of the SandWing Succession. However, they are not pacifists either, seeing as assassins are a dime a dozen. The city is run by the Outclaws' leader, Thorn, however, she stops after the events of The Brightest Night, and became queen. After The Brightest Night, it is run by Qibli's grandfather, Vulture. The Outclaws are fiercely loyal to Thorn, though others have doubts, an example being a mother who refused to let her son get free meals from them in fear of him being abducted. Oasis The oasis is set in the middle of the Scorpion Den. It is large and is the source of water for the citizens of the town. When the Outclaws took over, they made their base on the oasis based on the belief that "She who controls the water controls everything". Vulture's Compound Vulture's Compound is a compound located in the Scorpion Den that is home to Vulture and his Talons of Power. It is decorated lavishly with a lot of gold, onyx, emeralds, and more. The deadly structure is complete with an observatory, pavilion, prison cell, oubliette, food storage, treasury, and more. The compound is said to be "The most well-fortified structure in Pyrrhia" by Qibli, considering that it is full of deadly traps that would kill any dragon trying to sneak in. Market The Market is a busy area of the Scorpion Den, and is most likely the Scorpion Dens’ citizens’ food supply. The Market is where Bog first met Vulture and decided to work for him. Orphanage Edit The orphanage is the home of SandWing orphans from the war, the desert, or the Scorpion Den itself. Not much else is known about the orphanage, except that it was almost destroyed in a fire in ''The Brightest Night ''when an unknown dragon panicked and set an area up in flames when they thought they saw a Dragonbite Viper. The fire, however, was stopped by the Outclaws, and was revealed to be a hoax set by Addax, who set the fire and lied about the dragonbite viper, because he wanted to kidnap Sunny and bring her to Burn to get his space back in her army.